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The need for more sustainable building methods, despite its sad root causes, favors precast concrete as precast is more environment-friendly than cast-in-situ building. This is because precast concrete uses less of everything – less water, less steel and less cement. Furthermore, precast concrete production takes place in controlled conditions at a factory, thus offering a gamut of ways to further improve the sustainability of the production process. For example, a precast plant can employ a closed water circulation loop which of course saves clean water vital for all life. 

”One of the major possibilities for the precast industry to contribute to improving sustainability in construction arises from the use of materials and new and modern production machinery. New machinery is designed to be material-efficient, which means that they produce less waste. An excellent example of such a development is our new flagship model Extruder E9 that will be introduced at Bauma 2019. Thanks to its extremely efficient shear compaction technology and other slab-quality-improving solutions, the machine does not waste any cement nor do the slabs get scrapped due to production errors. Concrete recycling is an upcoming trend in precast production, and our new Extruder features also this possibility”, says Mats Jungar, CEO of Elematic. 

The building construction industry has not been at the forefront in adopting new digital solutions, but there is a clear need for moving forward now. At a construction site of today, even as low as 30 % of the work hours is used for the actual building work. A same percentage goes to logistics and traffic and an even bigger part, 40%, is spent for waiting. The efficiency could be greatly improved with the help of real-time situational awareness solutions – in practice placing RFID tags into tools and materials -, and sharing information through BIM models to everyone involved in a construction project. For precast concrete producers this means a great chance as all the tools required for serving the construction site of the future are available already today. 

“A precast plant that starts operating with digital plant control system today surely has an advantage now and also in the future. At Bauma 2019, Elematic introduces a new manufacturing execution system for precast wall production. The system is a part of a wider digital solution called Plant Control, and it can take panel design information in directly from BIM systems such as Tekla Structures. Should construction sites start with just-in-time orders, Plant Control could take these in through BIM and it can, of course, produce information for the RFID tags”, Jungar describes. “However, above all, our Plant Control system, and in particular the new wall manufacturing execution system part of it, serve the precast plant production line.” 

Elematic WallMES optimizes precast wall panel production and gives a variety of tools for planning and monitoring. The main objective of the manufacturing execution system is to achieve smooth, continuous production and low operational costs as well as ensure high quality of precast wall panels.  

Safety should be the first priority whenever doing business as the lack of it has so severe consequences not only to the reputation of a company and its people as employees but also to the lives of those employees as private persons. 

”Forerunners in the precast industry are investing in factory safety as they see it as a competitive advantage. We at Elematic want to make the precast plants safer places to work, not only considering the instant dangers, but also the entire lives of the personnel and the factory lifecycle. Therefore, our latest machine models are equipped with various solutions to reduce occupational accidents and safety risks, for example, movement sensors, auto-stop functions and tools for safe lifting”, Jungar concludes